The BMW isetta reimagined, cute but really for European cities with.tight. parking.
Safety is my main concern for small cars like. Itās difficult to insure the driver and passengers remain unharmed or at least w/o serious injuries in the event of an accident. I guess an argument could be made that if a car owner were willing to risk their safety, and just drive very carefully, they should be given that option. Similar to that allowed to motorcycle drivers.
Ya, itās a city car for people in cities that actually need a car. Probably not so useful otherwise. Except it would probably make a great toad for a small RV owner. I keep telling my wife - now that the kids are gone - that we need to sell the house and use the proceeds to buy an RV and a houseboat. This way we could just be wherever we wanted whenever on land or water. Sheās not buying it so far. But Iād consider something like that to be a toad.
The Smart car did not sell very well in the US at all. Why would this one?
Answer: It could not be sold here unless limited to 25 mph.
I almost put a deposit on a Smart Car and then I saw the price and that it really did not get the Miles per gallon I thought it should.
Then donāt buy one, you will lose in a fight with a SUV etc etcā¦ lol
What amazes me is how poor modern vehiclesā fuel economy is compared to what was available 20-30 years ago with much less advanced technology. My 1988 Toyota Corolla routinely achieved over 40 mpg in mixed city and highway driving, and that was with a single-barrel carburetor. My 1991 Toyota Tercel routinely achieved well over 35 mpg in mixed city and highway driving, and that was with the ānewā gasoline containing 10% ethanol. The Geo Metro was said to achieve well over 40 mpg, though I never drove one. Nowadays, itās difficult to find anything which can crest 25 mpg, and thatās just crazy!
The almost new 2018 1500 Silverado 5.3L w/355 HP, 4x4 4 door that I put well over 4000 miles on it in 2 months got 18-20 mpg with me doing 85+ (parts of the road I would sometimes get it to 105 for a mile or two) most of the way on a 120 mile round trip everyday, I am sure doing the speed limit would have gotten much better mpgā¦ lol
So I would hope that a car with way better aero, lighter weight and much smaller engine would get way better mpgā¦
My daughters 2017 Corolla LE gets around 30 mpg and she drives like meā¦
My V8 Mustang will hit 24 mpg on the highway. 19.5 in mixed traffic. My Audi A4, a 3800 lb sedan, will hit 34 on the highway and get 26 or so combined. Both larger than your old Corolla.
My 92 Saturn twin cam would get 40 highway and 30 or so in mixed driving but that was a small coupeā¦ comparable to a Corolla coupe.
IDK how this became an MPG threadā¦I guess b/c first someone brought up the āSmartcarā and then someone else commented on the low mpgs of that little matchbox. I agree and felt the same. I was thinking that if you put me in that little tin can Iāll need very large MPGs.
I felt the same when the Prius first appeared in 2000. I was in a '91 Escort 5-speed and could get like high 30s to 40 mpg out of it. And I knew that things like Honda Civics and Toyota ICEās could do similar.
And Toyota was advertising a hybrid in the mid-40s? I was thinking, yeah. Not impressed. Add a whole electric assist option and thatās all you can do?
Alas, I do now own one of those. A 2003. Itās actual MPG range is anywhere from 40-55. Depends on how you drive it. (If you want over 50mpg you stay on 45mph roads or less).
Best guess it slips through some low speed vehicle loophole but itās going to depend on how much it ends up costing once here.
When my NX 450h+ PHEV was at the dealership for its 15k service, my loaner car was a new RX 350 (non-hybrid). The main reasons why I didnāt like the RX was that its ride was too āfloatyā for my taste, and it was just too big for me.
But, the ākillerā would have to be that I was only able to eke-out 27 mpg from it. * By comparison, when my NX is driven in HV mode, it has never gotten less than 37 mpg, and it usually gives me 42 mpg.
*Edited to add that I just checked the EPAās figures for that RX, and they state that it achieves 22 mpg in the city, and 29 mpg on the highway, so I guess that I didnāt do too badly with 27 mpg when I drove that big, heavy luxo-barge.
Exactly!
If somebody wants a compact sedan, they can easily find one that gets much better gas mileage than a smaller, less-powerful, less-safe subcompact from the '80s.
Very true, my daughters 2002 was smaller than my 2006, and now her 2017 Corolla is bigger than the 2006 wasā¦
Several European cities donāt allow larger vehicles in, except to drop people or cargo off. A car like this allows someone in one of those cities to shop and park close to home with a short walk carrying groceries or other goods. Large vehicles must park in satellite garages on the outskirts of the city and owners must find another way to get home. In 2003 we stayed a few days in Amsterdam on the way home for a vacation in Germany. The 9 passenger van I rented could get around town well enough but finding a parking spot was impossible. I dropped the family and our luggage at the hotel and returned the van immediately to the airport.
Almost all models have gotten bigger over the years. The newer Civics are something like 14 inches longer than the original Accords. And yet, gas mileage continues to growāeven with more powerful engines.
I always get a laugh when folks compare small, slow, polluting cars with the crash safety of a Bud can to modern cars. And I can easily find cars that get better than 25 mpg.
I think you are looking in the wrong places. 2017 Camry 4cyl. consistently 35-37 hwy, 2013 Camry V6 31-35 hwy, even my 2008 BMW V8 will get 26-28 hwy. Your blanket statement, now thatās crazy.